Are you ok?
by cheesycheeselovr
Summary: Set after Brotherhood. A moment between Roy and Edward after a burglary gone very wrong. Rated T for character death, beyond that it's safe for kiddies.


**Are you ok?**

Are you ok? It seemed like such a simple question, but for Edward it never really was. Neither was it for the person who asked him. Years of being asked the silly question, he already had the answer on his tongue before even fully acknowledging the question. The boy stared at Mustang with wide and almost teary golden eyes, the look reflected back at him in pools of obsidian. Was he ok? No, not by a long shot. His brother... He...

"I'm fine." the teen jerked out of the military issue coat that Mustang had tried to drape over him. There was blood on it...so much blood that wasn't his, that wasn't Roy's, that shouldn't be there. "I'm fine." he repeated, if only to try and convince himself.

"Fullmetal, I-"

"I said I'm fine, ok?"

But Roy could see that the boy was not fine. He wasn't fine when he lost his mother the first time, or the second time when he tried to bring her back, and he sure wasn't fine now. It was plain as day to anyone who could see the trembling shoulders, the empty eyes, the frowning mouth. Edward had always been an open book, and that hadn't changed at all.

The man looked at the officers that were trying to gather up the remains of what used to be Alphonse Elric, faces stoic and grim as they avoided contact with the sole relative of the violently deceased. It was heart wrenching, really. After so many years of searching for a way to gain their bodies back, Edward had succeeded. They had acquired the lives that they both deserved: happy and well in Resembool creating a new life for themselves. No one would have been able to predict that a burglary gone very very wrong would be the end of the younger Elric and their short-lived happiness.

Mustang sighed, trying to determine the best course of action as he watched Edward fight off the medic on scene. Because he was fine, he was ok and he didn't need some doctor poking and prodding him to tell him what he already knew. Edward argued this until he finally just kicked the medic with his automail leg and moved past him until he was outside and sat on the ground with his back against the outer wall.

The flame alchemist sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to think up anything good to say until he was actually talking. Or not. Either way, he moved swiftly until he too was sitting against the wall beside his former subordinate. He sat with a groan, not as young as he used to be, eyes turned upward as he watched the clouds go by above him, keeping an eye on the person next to him out of the corner of his eye. The colonel had expected the younger to say something; an insult, a jab, anything really, but he was silent.

"You can't do it, yaknow." Mustang finally said, but still he got no reaction. Edward didn't even blink to show he was listening, so the elder continued on. "You can't bring him back, you know that right? Even if you did still have your alchemy, you wouldn't-"

"Don't you think I know that?" the voice was low, flat, and devoid of all the life that had been there only hours before. "What do you want, Mustang? Shouldn't you be trying to catch the guy who did this?"

Roy nodded. "We have him in custody with a full confession. With everything we have on him, he'll probably never see sunlight again."

"That's good." but the statement wasn't said with any satisfaction or any emotion at all. Why would it? Catching the guy who did this to his br- it wouldn't bring him back.

There was silence again, and this time Roy didn't feel the need to break it. He hoped that Ed would do that himself, and he wasn't disappointed.

"We were arguing..." the teen started quietly, barely audible to Roy's ears only a foot away. "About getting a stupid cat, it was just habit I guess from when we were still looking for the stone. I argued and we could have just kept the cat, why did we have to argue? I should have... Should have just let him have the cat..."

Roy draped an arm around the younger's shoulders in a comforting gesture as they began to shake with silent, racking sobs. He pulled Ed close, and for once the former state alchemist allowed himself to be comforted. Edward finally let all the pain that had accumulated over the past hour out in turbulent cries and held onto the older man for dear life. "He was the only family-the only one I had left! Why did it have to be him? Why couldn't it be me? I'm the one with the money anyway, Alphonse doesn't have a cent to his name, why did the burglar come after him?"

Mustang didn't have an answer for the boy, but he suspected that he wasn't actually looking for one. Instead, he simply wrapped both arms around the crying child and did his best to comfort him, rocking them both back and forth until the sobs slowed and finally stopped. After awhile it seemed that Ed had cried himself to sleep, which was just as well. Roy wasn't sure what would happen now, but he hoped that once the boy woke up he would be able to cope with the loss of his brother and only relative. Winry would be back from Rush Valley soon, so maybe she would be able to help too. For the sake of Edward's sanity, Roy hoped so.

"Would you mind telling Winry about this?"

Roy looked down, a little startled that the boy was not asleep, but nodded anyway. "I'll tell her and Pinako as soon as we finish cleaning up here."

"Don't bother."

"Edward, you can't-"

"I'm not going to try human transmutation again, I just... I can't live here anymore. Too many people have died here because of me, I don't want anyone else to too."

Roy sighed, but he understood the sentiment. It was similar to his feelings about going to Ishbal, very very unpleasant. "Where you going to go?"

The boy shrugged. "Anywhere, doesn't matter as long as I'm not here. Without fighting all the time I won't have to come back for maintenance as often, I might go to Dublin. Teacher would have liked that."

Roy nodded. "You need anything, you know where to go."

It was a statement, not a question nor suggestion, and Ed smiled thinly at it. "Is that an order, colonel?"

"You bet it is."

**A/N: Blech, I didn't know where to stop this, and now it just feels very cut off. But I don't really know what else to say and... Grrr excuses. Anyway, I hope you liked this sad little oneshot, I really wanted to explore a sad moment between Roy and Edward. Does it really count as parental though? hmm.**

**please read and review!**


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